All's well that ends well

Whew!  Crazy weekend.  My training plans didn't go quite as planned for the weekend, but it all ended up okay.  The original plan was to run my long run, (10 miles) on Saturday, and cross train on Sunday, along with my usual daily calisthenics from www.fitfabulousforever.com.  But things didn't go as planned, which is so often the case in my life!
Saturday morning, I got up promptly at 5 to get my morning work finished so I could do my 10 miler before driving 2 hours each way to pick up daughter #1 from camp.  I had my smoothie, and as I was heading out the door to work, it started to thunderstorm.  I got the work done, but there was no way I was running with the giant bolts of lightning!  I drove to camp, got Selena, and we drove back.   It poured for part of the ride, then cleared up.  I thought, "okay, Jacob and I can run 10 with the stroller this afternoon."
Got home to delicious cucumber and asparagus sushi, so we ate.  We finally got ready to leave the house, thinking we'd go to Grant's Trail, run, then go to Costco, and come home to go to the Cosmic Cow show.
We got the stroller into the car, and it started raining.  Again.  Ugh.  We went to Costco, and then home to put away the frozen food.  Then the kids exploded and we decided that we weren't up to a concert.  We eventually ended up going for a walk to Tower Grove Park and finding a really cool natural hive of feral bees in a big Osage Orange tree.  The whole walk I was wheezing, my asthma is bad in the super high humidity.  By the time we got everyone to bed, I was grumpy, having missed my workout and having to count a walk as crosstraining, and realizing that I do, indeed, have a cold.  And having had a very bad eating day.  Which always really upsets me.  I asked Selena if she'd be willing to babysit in the morning so Jacob and I could go run.  She generously agreed.

Sunday morning, I woke at 5, took care of the dogs, and went back to sleep until 6:30, which was really too late to get a fast start.  I got Jacob up and told him he had to go to work with me if we were going to have time to run.  He said, "I hate you" and got up. I ate my overnight oatmeal with peaches, cinnamon, lemon zest and soymilk, and got some water ready to go.   We took care of 4 jobs, and by then it was 8:45.  I was upset, thinking we would never get back before Selena got really annoyed with the kids and everything at home was ugly.  I really, really wanted to trail run, so we headed west toward the closest places, Queeny Park, and Castlewood.  Queeny is closest, so Jacob drove there, since I said I didn't care where we went.  I realized when we got there, that I did NOT want to run there, and was feeling sort of hateful toward the whole idea.  So we went to Castlewood State Park, which is one of my very favorite places to run.  I used to trail run at least once a week before the younger kids were born.  Since the older kids were not homeschooled, I had daytime hours free sometimes, and would use them to trail run as often as I could.  I always went on Mondays, when I had only one dog walking job, and when most sitting clients return from vacations.  I often ran at Castlewood, or on the Chubb Trail at Lone Elk Park, or the Greenrock Trail, or Babler State Park.  I'd go any other day during the week that I could free up a couple of hours.  Since the younger kids are homeschooled, I don't have the big blocks of time to manipulate, and trail running is something that has fallen away by necessity, and that I miss very much.
So, when Selena can babysit, Jacob and I almost always use that time to go trail running.

Today's run was great.  We climbed the front of the hill that tops at the bluffs over the Meramec River, and goes down an enormous set of stairs to the train tracks, and along the river, then back around to the road we started from and back out to another hill climb on the opposite site of the road, up the Grotepeter Trail, which climbs and tops the hills, then comes out at the Ranger station, where we crossed the road again, and climbed the River Walk Trail back to the top of the bluffs, then down the first trail we took up, and back to the parking lot.  2:10.  Probably not 10 miles, but the terrain and the elevation gains and losses more than make up for mileage.  It was also hot.  About 95 F with a heat index of 106.  We saw a 5 foot black snake, a box turtle, a bunch of Turkey Vultures (no, they were NOT following me!), a chipmunk, and a really annoying horsefly.  I did take one big wipeout, but it was pretty well balanced, and I came out with some dirt and a scrape on my right knee.  I fell right on the flat, in the soft dirt, shortly after descending the stairs.  I never seem to fall on the rocks and heavy terrain.  Lucky me.  Jacob thinks it may have something to do with the stairs.

Things I learned today:

My wonderful husband will do pretty much anything to hang with me, even if he shouldn't.
Don't forget the bottle of gatorade in the fridge.
I can still run hardcore on the rough stuff.
Merrell Pace Gloves are awesome shoes, but definitely need gaiters.  Dirty girl will be back tomorrow, so I'll be putting in an order.
Having a daughter who can babysit and have multigrain pancakes for you when you get home rocks.
Citrus bodywash on a scraped knee really stings!
I still love Castlewood, the river, and all the amazing natural beauty available to me.
Trail running soothes my soul like nothing else.

I still have the cold, but I feel so much better after the run!   We gave Selena $20 for babysitting, so maybe she'll do it again next week.  All's well that ends well.  And I think I might add a bike ride to tomorrow's "rest" day, just for fun.